they have agreed to introduce a new tax break for supporting the poor when the consumption tax doubles in 2015. the agreement is part of a tax reform plan for fiscal 2013, which the liberal democratic party and the new kuomot approved on thursday. under the plan lower rates take effect in october 2015 when the consumption tax is set to double to 10%. the two parties have also decided on an income tax hike. under their plan people with annual incomes of more than $450,000 will get a tax rate of 45%. that's up from the current 40%. the new rate set to go into effect in january 2015. >>> all right. that's going to do it for biz tonight. i'm going to hand it back to gene. >>> ron, thank you for that. a japanese citizen considered missing after last week's hostage siege at a natural gas plant in algeria is now confirmed dead. this brings the number of japanese victims to ten. islamist militants attacked the desert facility and kidnapped hundreds of workers. chief cabinet secretary yoshihide suga just confirmed the death of this man who is 66. he was a top executive with the japanese firm jj